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I am finally formally starting my Mazda RX8 conversion, Project EVolution. The main aims of the project is to have a sporty electric coupé with as much range as possible from the Better Place battery pack I have. I understand there are going to be trade off’s with this.
Another aim is to document the process as much as possible and make it easier for others to follow suit. Mazda RX8's are an excellent and relatively economical donor car for a conversion. It seems more and more people are converting RX8's and I hope I can play a part in helping others have beautiful electric RX8's and save such cars with broken engines going to waste. I have gone through a lot of research so far and learned a lot from what others have shared on these forum and elsewhere which is duly and truly appreciated.
Speaking of sharing, I hope to share as much of my research, links, files, etc as possible to help others. To this end, I will set-up a dropbox which will be shared although, most if not all the folders may be read only.
A little about me, I am a Mechanical Engineer who is passionate about sustainability and renewable energy which industry I work in. I did a project on electric cars in 4th year with two other Mechanical Engineers and learned how more efficient and superior the technology is and how we could be driving such cars with the desire against the opposition from certain industries...
My uncle is also very interested in working on the project. He is modern day smith (in a long line of smiths in our family). A master craftsman, he will likely help with a lot of the major metal fabrication. He will also be chief consultant to the project having a wealth of invaluable experience.
On hearing the weight of the battery, he said straight away that the shocks will need to be upgraded. I've heard he's right! I'm thinking of getting second hand Eiback springs which are supposed to be 60% stiffer although, they are 15 mm shorter than the standard shock. These came in the RX8 PZ. Any other ideas for stiffer shocks which aren't shorter?
I presently have my favourite car, a Mazda RX8 2004 5 speed which came without the engine. It cost only €500! I got it off a man who had a race school of RX8's in Hungry. He stripped out many RX8's and even added an extra rotor to one!
I also have the battery. It is one of the Battery Place battery packs, ~24 kW h. I got it for about 10 times the cost of the car... Getting monetary matters out of the way, I'm hoping to convert around €12k mark in total. Being in Europe something similar to, http://shop.rebbl.com/3631239/diy-15...-start-up-kit- would cover most of the rest of what I needed. I won't need a throttle though as the standard throttle works with the EVNetics Soliton jr. =)
I will probably get the other parts over the course of the next few months. I am going for a DC conversion as AC is simply too expensive for me presently. If I were to go AC, it would likely be using a crashed Nissan Leaf or similar. I actually think this could be cost effective way of converting a car. I have tried looking into this but I can't seem to find anything over here in Ireland or the UK. If anyone knows better please let me know. I like options
As I've mentioned previously, I'm thinking of Kostov K11 Alpha for the motor and an EVNetics Solitan jr. for the motor controller. I know other RX8 conversions have similar set-ups. The reason I am thinking of an K11 Alpha is that it is one of the most powerful DC motors without going into direct drive territory or being too heavy and seems to have a very good weight to performance ratio. Any feedback on my intended choices are openly welcome positive and negative.
As for the adapter plate, I am looking into having this piece machined from CAD drawings I found online. I know this can be readily bought but it could save some money having it made and it would be nice to have some parts open source per se.
As for chargers, again, I'd like to be as open source as possible and there are options to this end but they seem a bit expensive. I'm open to advice here.
I appreciate from others experience that getting the ECU working without the engine is one of the trickier elements of the conversion. I know there is some open info on this: http://www.madox.net/blog/projects/mazda-can-bus/ but I think it will be more hassle than it is worth presently. To overcome this, I am presently looking at: Mazda RX8 ECU Replacement Module from CANbusAuto, http://www.canbusauto.co.uk/10.html. I have sent them an email and am waiting for their response.
For the this project though, the trickiest thing is going to be that I work in England and the car is in Ireland... Not ideal :/ If we didn't like challenges though, we won't convert car to electric though would we? This will naturally limit the pace of progress but as we know converting a car is marathon not a race (the races come later...).
All feedback and questions welcome. I look forward to collaborating with you all.
Another aim is to document the process as much as possible and make it easier for others to follow suit. Mazda RX8's are an excellent and relatively economical donor car for a conversion. It seems more and more people are converting RX8's and I hope I can play a part in helping others have beautiful electric RX8's and save such cars with broken engines going to waste. I have gone through a lot of research so far and learned a lot from what others have shared on these forum and elsewhere which is duly and truly appreciated.
Speaking of sharing, I hope to share as much of my research, links, files, etc as possible to help others. To this end, I will set-up a dropbox which will be shared although, most if not all the folders may be read only.
A little about me, I am a Mechanical Engineer who is passionate about sustainability and renewable energy which industry I work in. I did a project on electric cars in 4th year with two other Mechanical Engineers and learned how more efficient and superior the technology is and how we could be driving such cars with the desire against the opposition from certain industries...
My uncle is also very interested in working on the project. He is modern day smith (in a long line of smiths in our family). A master craftsman, he will likely help with a lot of the major metal fabrication. He will also be chief consultant to the project having a wealth of invaluable experience.
On hearing the weight of the battery, he said straight away that the shocks will need to be upgraded. I've heard he's right! I'm thinking of getting second hand Eiback springs which are supposed to be 60% stiffer although, they are 15 mm shorter than the standard shock. These came in the RX8 PZ. Any other ideas for stiffer shocks which aren't shorter?
I presently have my favourite car, a Mazda RX8 2004 5 speed which came without the engine. It cost only €500! I got it off a man who had a race school of RX8's in Hungry. He stripped out many RX8's and even added an extra rotor to one!
I also have the battery. It is one of the Battery Place battery packs, ~24 kW h. I got it for about 10 times the cost of the car... Getting monetary matters out of the way, I'm hoping to convert around €12k mark in total. Being in Europe something similar to, http://shop.rebbl.com/3631239/diy-15...-start-up-kit- would cover most of the rest of what I needed. I won't need a throttle though as the standard throttle works with the EVNetics Soliton jr. =)
I will probably get the other parts over the course of the next few months. I am going for a DC conversion as AC is simply too expensive for me presently. If I were to go AC, it would likely be using a crashed Nissan Leaf or similar. I actually think this could be cost effective way of converting a car. I have tried looking into this but I can't seem to find anything over here in Ireland or the UK. If anyone knows better please let me know. I like options
As I've mentioned previously, I'm thinking of Kostov K11 Alpha for the motor and an EVNetics Solitan jr. for the motor controller. I know other RX8 conversions have similar set-ups. The reason I am thinking of an K11 Alpha is that it is one of the most powerful DC motors without going into direct drive territory or being too heavy and seems to have a very good weight to performance ratio. Any feedback on my intended choices are openly welcome positive and negative.
As for the adapter plate, I am looking into having this piece machined from CAD drawings I found online. I know this can be readily bought but it could save some money having it made and it would be nice to have some parts open source per se.
As for chargers, again, I'd like to be as open source as possible and there are options to this end but they seem a bit expensive. I'm open to advice here.
I appreciate from others experience that getting the ECU working without the engine is one of the trickier elements of the conversion. I know there is some open info on this: http://www.madox.net/blog/projects/mazda-can-bus/ but I think it will be more hassle than it is worth presently. To overcome this, I am presently looking at: Mazda RX8 ECU Replacement Module from CANbusAuto, http://www.canbusauto.co.uk/10.html. I have sent them an email and am waiting for their response.
For the this project though, the trickiest thing is going to be that I work in England and the car is in Ireland... Not ideal :/ If we didn't like challenges though, we won't convert car to electric though would we? This will naturally limit the pace of progress but as we know converting a car is marathon not a race (the races come later...).
All feedback and questions welcome. I look forward to collaborating with you all.
